Juvenile vehicle.



J. WEBER, JR.

JUVENILE VEHICLE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 2. mu.

1 ,277, 1 6 1 Patented Aug. 27, 1918.

-I1\r VENTOR- nErrED STATES PATENT oE roE.

JOHN WEBER, an, or TOLEDO, oruo, ASSIGNOR o THE TOLEDO METAL WHEEL COM-PAIN'Y, 0F TOLEDO, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

JUVENILE VEHICLE.

Application filed March 2, 1918.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN WEBER, J r., acitizen of the United States, and resident of Toledo, in the county ofLucas and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful JuvenileVehicle; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters ofreference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to juvenile vehicles, and particularly tofoot-propelled vehicles of this class.

The primary object of my invention is the provision of an improved footoperated drive-gear for the propeller shafts of vehicles of theclass'described, whereby such gear will not become locked against freeand easy movement at any position of rotation of the propeller shaft,thereby obviating 0bjections incident to the use of drive-gears nowcommonly employed 1n uvenile ve-- hicles.

The invention is fully described in the following specification, andwhile, in its broader aspect, it is capable of embodiment in numerousforms, a. preferred embodiment thereof is illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side elevation of avehicle embodying my invention, with parts broken away, and Fig. 2 is atop plan View thereof, with parts removed and broken away.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates the frame of a uvenile vehicle,2 the customary double-cranked propeller shaft carrying the propellerwheels 3, and 4 the front axle at the ends of which are carried thefront wheels 5.

A bracket 6'of U-shape, in the present instance, is secured to the underside of the front axle 4 with its legs depending, and a link 7 ispivotally suspended from each of such legs for forward and rearwardswinging movements. A propeller-bar 8 pivotally projects rearward fromthe lower end Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Au 27, 1918.

Serial No. 219,945.

of each link 7 and has a journal bearing at its rear end for receivingthe respective crank wrist portion of the propeller shaft 2.

A pedal 9 is carried at the outer side of each bar 8 in spaced relationto both ends thereof by a bracket 10, which bracket, in the presentinstance, is of U-looped form and has one leg prolonged and fixed to theouter side of the respective bar 8 by bolts 11,01 in any other suitablemanner.

It is evident that by exerting the propelling force on the bars 8, 8intermediate their ends the bars will be positively prevented fromlooking against a shaft propelling movement when the cranks of thepropeller shaft are in substantially the plane of longitudinalprojection of the propeller bars, or in what is customarily termed thedead center position of the shaft, as is the case where the propellingforce is applied to the bars at the outer ends thereof. In other words,the positioning of the foot pedals intermediate the ends of thepropeller bars enables the operator to exert either a longitudinal ortransverse force to a propeller bar or to combine both such forces, sothat it is impossible to have any dead center position between thepropeller bars and crank-shaft, whereas, if the pedals are located atthe forward ends of the propeller bars a pulling or longitudinal forceonly can be imparted through the bars to the propeller shaft.

Another advantage incident to my improved drive-gear is theadjustability of the pedal-brackets longitudinally of the pro- .pellerbars to suit the operator, as such ad- In a foot-propelled vehicle, aframe, a a bracket screwed to a side of each propropeller crank-shaft,links pivotally suspeller bar intermediate its ends, and a pedal pendedfrom the frame for swinging movecarried by each bracket. 10 inentslengthwise thereof and in trans- In testimony whereof, I have hereunto 5versely spaced relation to said shaft, prosigned my name to thisspecification.

peller bars connecting said links and shaft and movable to impartrotation to the shaft, JOHN W'EBER, JR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Iatents, Washington, D. 0,"

